Certain applications of hydraulic actuators require the hydraulic actuators to fail-safe retract during situations where hydraulic pressure is lost. Previously, fail-safe retraction in a hydraulic actuator has been accomplished using a coil spring or a wave spring. However, the standard fail-safe spring that is used tends to be very large, which increases the total length of the hydraulic actuator since the actuator is sized to accommodate the spring travel as well as the solid height.